Red, White, and Blue!

These are quite possibly my favorite cupcakes that I have ever made. They are festive for the 4th of July, and oh so tasty. Now, the cake itself is not from scratch because I had an extra box of white cake mix laying around for some cake balls that never happened. Plus, I always know that the boxed cake mix will be wonderful, so that only leaves me to worry about how the new icing recipe will turn out. I did however, add some sprinkles to the cake mix to make it festive on in the inside too!

In the picture below are some of the main things
needed to make these cupcakes...sparklers? Yup!

After you make your cake batter, pour in some sprinkles!

The cupcakes waiting to go in the oven...

And they're done!

The icing recipe I used is below, and it is DELICIOUS! It is a white chocolate cream cheese frosting, and my taste testers loved it!

White Chocolate Frosting
Adapted from Taste Duds

• 7oz (approx. 1 heaping cup) white chocolate chips
• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar

1. Melt white chocolate chips in a bowl in the microwave in 20-second bursts. Cool for about 10 minutes.
2. Cream butter and cream cheese together using an electric mixture (make sure they are both room temperture or they won't cream properly).
3. Add the white chocolate and vanilla and beat until combined.
4. Carefully add in the powdered sugar and beat at low speed until combined.
5. Turn off mixer and give it a good stir to make sure everything is combined.

Then pour into a pastry bag with a large star tip and pipe away! To get the colors in the frosting I took a paint brush and painted red and blue lines inside the pastry bag using the Wilton Icing colors, and then filled the bag with icing. However, it didn't work as well as I had hoped. The first cupcake was pretty much just white then the next ones were really dark and then the color kind of faded away. You may have to add more paint when you refill the bag if you want them all to have similar color, or just use two bags.

(The sparkler was just for photography sake, and any
cupcakes with sparklers in them should not be eaten!)

Enjoy and have a wonderful 4th of July!!
-amanda

Chocolate Raspberry Tarts

I found this recipe on the Food Network site and could not wait to try it. The recipe yields 6 regular muffin size tarts, but I thought that would be too much richness for one person. I ended up making two in the large size so I could put a raspberry in the center like the recipe calls for and then made 12 mini ones as well.

Overall, I didn't think they were sweet enough. I wish now that I would have used semi-sweet chocolate instead of bittersweet.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (I used Oreos)
• 6 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 recipe Dark Chocolate Truffle mixture, recipe below
• 6 fresh raspberries, plus extra for serving

Mix together the chocolate wafer crumbs and melted butter. Spray the cups of a 6-muffin tins (or mini tins if you choose) with a vegetable spray. Line the cups with strips of parchment or waxed paper, cut so that they are as wide as the diameter of each cup and long enough to overhang the sides (you'll need this overhang to remove the tarts).

Use the bottom of a small glass (I used the back of a measuring table spoon for the minis) to press the crumbs over the bottom and sides of the muffin cups, building the sides up. Place a raspberry in the center of each crust and with a pastry bag fill the tarts with the truffle mixture. Smooth the tops and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.

Dark Chocolate Truffle Mixture:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces good-quality (70 percent) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a saucepan, bring the cream just to a simmer over low heat. stir to avoid getting a skin on the cream. Pour the cream over the chocolate in a bowl and let stand about 10 minutes to melt the chocolate. (I had to put mine in the microwave for about 15 secs or so because it was still chunky.) Add the vanilla and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool for 1 hour at room temperature. Then beat the chocolate at medium speed until it gets thick and light colored.

-amanda

Cupcake Bites

I made these yummy little cupcake bites using the delicious and simple Duncan Hines Butter Fudge cake mix. For detailed instructions on how to make the cupcake bites check out Bakerella.



I decided that I didn't want to make a million cupcake bites so I used the rest of the batter to make a small cake. Ta-daaa!



Also for your viewing pleasure, here are some previous cupcake bites that I made:


Thanks for visiting!
-amanda